Erik Qualman's Blog, page 605

Infographic: Keeping it Simple With Responsive Web Design

We all know how much the internet has changed the way we communicate and do business with each other, and whether you run a home-based firm or something much larger, it is no longer enough to rely on a simple website that does not reflect that our changing habits when it comes to web browsing.

The latest internet-based revolution is centered around Responsive Web Design, which involves the creation of web content across a multitude of different platforms and formats such as smartphones, tablets and of course, PC’s. When you consider that over 90% of Americans have a cell phone and over half of those are smartphones, it should not take you long to realise that with an estimated 60% of people using a mobile device every day to access the internet, your website needs to adaptable enough to make their browsing experience worthwhile when they visit your site.

It is one of those strange anomalies that there are actually more mobile devices in circulation than there are humans on the entire planet, and with Cisco predicting that 2017 will see a figure of 1.4 devices per person, generating an incredible sixteen Exabyte’s of traffic each and every month by the time we hit 2018, you should take note that the power of Responsive Web Design is already being considered by many web savvy people as an indispensable commodity.

When you consider that an estimated 96% of consumers have experienced issues and problems with sites that are not mobile-friendly in their design, it is hardly surprising to learn that the vast majority of mobile web users much prefer visiting a site that has been designed for mobile access.

This infographic gives you the lowdown on what Responsive Web Design is all about and it will most likely leave you with little doubt that your website needs to be able to cater for the vast army of people who use their mobile devices every day to find sites just like yours.

Infographic Source: Who Is Hosting This

Thumbnail: http://tinyurl.com/mefmoxr

 

 

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Manage Your (Social) Media [Infographic]

According to the following infographic, 43% of job recruiters have reconsidered a candidate based on their social media profile. So, if you are currently applying for jobs (or would like to keep your current one), follow these useful tips on how to keep your social media profiles employer-friendly.

Source: BestMastersPrograms.org

Thumbnail: http://tinyurl.com/ow2kok2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reaching Out to Birth Parents Via Social Media

According to PBS.org, adoptions represent approximately 2.5 percent of all children in the United States. That means that each year, there are 1.5 million adoptions taking place in the U.S. alone.

But what about these kids’ natural parents?

Do they ever go looking for them? And if so, how do they go about doing this?

Research shows that most adopted children feel out of place at some point in their lives and want to know where they came from.

Whether it is for medical reasons or just to know their history, adoptees tend to want to know about their birth parents at some point in time.

Parents that adopt and kids that are adopted often wonder should adoptees have access to information about their birth parents? And if so, how do you go about finding that information?

According to the American Adoption Congress, between 60 and 90 percent of adoptees want to learn more about their biological parents.

How adoptees can find their birth parents

If you happened to have an open adoption, it’s quite easy to find your birth parents.

Simply call the agency in which you were adopted and they can give you their contact information.

If the state you live in is an open adoption state, it’s even easier. As long as you are over 18 years old, just ask the state for a copy of your birth certificate.

Using social media

Since the recent boom of social media, adoptees can more easily find their natural parents without having to hire a private investigator.

Now, keep in mind that it’s much easier to find your natural birth parents if they want to be found.

And same goes for them – natural birth parents can easily find their son or daughter if the son or daughter makes it easy to find them.

Among the ways:

Create a blog – You can start a blog with basic information about yourself so you can be easily found in search engines. According to Adoption Birth Mother’s How to Use Social Media for An Adoption Search, there are three main things you’ll want on your blog – your place of birth, sex and birth date. This information should be included in the URL of the blog in order to rank high in Google.
Set up a Facebook page – Gain traffic on your search by creating a Facebook page. Since Facebook is the most popular form of social media, you’ll want to start there. Once you get everything up and running, you can extend your search through Twitter, Google+, Instagram and more. All forms of social media should link back to your blog in order to help it gain maximum visibility.
Share and promote – Get the word out that you’re in search of your biological family by promoting your blog on all forms of social media. Ask friends and family members to help you in your search. Since social media is used by over 1 billion people, there’s a good chance someone will be able to help you in your search and get you where you need to be.

Photo credit: sodahead.com

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Four Reasons Instagram Is The Wall Street Of Social Media

Instagram has taken the world by storm, changing from the selfie platform to a storytelling platform practically overnight. Like most social media sites, it began free in hopes a larger company would acquisition it (cue Facebook) and expand it into something almost untouchable.

Instagram is a success story that offers other business ventures, from app programmers to photographers to food stylists, the chance to market their own company and become a success story as well.

Here are four reasons why Instagram is changing the face of the business world one picture at a time:

1. Social Is Visual

Over the last 12 months of Instagram, there has been a significant increase in the number of photos shared on social media. A picture speaks a 1,000 words; it tells a story. In one captured memory, a picture can say more about that moment than even the most detailed novels.

For all types of businesses, Instagram has the ability to reach consumers through one filtered photo. It can be a picture of a product, a picture of an abstract concept, or even a picture of happy people. All of these pictures will reach an audience, for each person responds differently to advertisement.

2. Personal Touch

Instagram allows business owners to share their softer side. While it is in fact marketing, Instagram seems more personal because it isn’t a corporate marketing magazine or billboard. It feels special, and allows consumers to see a different side to the company.

These Instagramed photos tell the story of the business and it’s attempt at success. And since everyone loves a good success story, more people will be willing to support the venture.

3. Reachable

Old days of marketing were only able to reach those who directly came into contact with the marketing feature. Business magazines didn’t reach teachers, and city billboards didn’t reach suburban families.

But with a hashtag and wireless, Instagram allows all businesses global success. People from any location can stumble across the company by searching through hashtags. It is reachable to everyone.

And with over 150 million people using Instagram with over 55 million photos being uploaded everyday, it is a booming market to promote business with the rest of the world.

4. Network

Although social networking started under the guise of being able to connect with old high school classmates and long lost relatives, it has turned into a business network perfect for making and keeping business contacts. Social networks are available to help people meet new people and build relationships.

Business owners can expand their popularity by following other businesses and making social connections. Because of Instagram’s popularity into being a household name, it is one of the best avenues for business owners to promote their business.

Instagram changed from a noun to a verb. Its success has taken businesses from flat to dynamic. It is one of the top social media networks, if not the top social media network. Take advantage of its triumphs and have an Instagram-like success of your own.

 

Image Source: www.pcmag.com

Thumbnail: http://tinyurl.com/m5gv2qm

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5 Tips for Brands to Get the Most Out of Twitter’s Latest Update

New Twitter Layout April 2014

As you have likely already seen, Twitter began implementing a new design this week that has a major impact both on the interface and functionality of the site. The new look shares many similarities with Facebook and focuses more on improving the overall user experience while making it easier to navigate and filter through tweets.

The most visible area of the latest Twitter upgrade are the changes to profile and cover images. The new cover photo spans the entire header of the profile page and replaces the background image used in the previous version of Twitter. The look is very clean and offers users the ability to focus on a single image for their profile page. In addition, users profile images are larger making it easier to see the individual.

From a functional perspective, Twitter has also introduced new functionality to improve the user experience by focusing on the most important content. The three areas with the biggest functional impact are:

“Best Tweets”: This feature is interesting because it will help profile visitors sort through the noise of Twitter profiles by highlighting the tweets that have generated the most engagement. Content with the highest engagement will appear with larger text, making it easier for users to find and engage with.

 

Example of Tweet with High Engagement - from @weezer

“Pinned Tweets”: I really like this feature because it offers a lot of potential for brands as well as individual users (more on this below in the tips section). This gives you the ability to “Pin” of feature one of your tweets at the top of your profile stream so visitors to your profile see it immediately.

 

Example of a Pinned Tweet from @channingtatum

Filtered Tweets: This is another cool feature that improves the overall user interface and makes it more user friendly. Twitter now gives visitors the option of choosing which timeline to view when checking out profiles. Users can select: a basic Twitter stream, a stream of only photos and videos, or tweets and replies.

 

Example of Twitter Filtering from @AFL

photo listFiltered List by Photo and Video via @AFL

 

Finally, the new follower & following list: Twitter has made the following/followers lists much more graphically orientated. You can now go visually see who is following a profile and who they are followers of through an easy to understand graphical interface.

New Following/Follower List View

 

Latest Mobile Functionality

In addition to the upgrades made this week on Twitter.com, Twitter has also rolled out some significant upgrades to their mobile interface for photo sharing. The new functionality has made the Twitter mobile client more dynamic for photos and includes:

Support for tagging up to 10 people in a photo – without impacting the 140 character limit

Through the mobile interface you can now tag photos with up to 10 individuals and the best part is the number of individuals tagged in a photo does not impact the 140 character limit. Twitter’s blog offers the instructions below:

Photo Tagging on TwitterPhoto Tagging on Twitter

Share Multiple Photos in a Single Tweet

Twitter has implemented the ability to add multiple (up to four) photos to a single tweet. This features automatically creates a collage that visitor can scroll through as they view the tweet. Below is an example showing the four photos and the lightbox that appears for the gallery.

Sharing Multiple Photos on Twitter

Both mobile features (photo-tagging and tweets with multiple photos) will display in embedded Tweets.

Tips for Brands Looking to Leverage the New Functionality

Twitter will begin rolling out the new change to Profile Pages to users over the next few weeks. In the meantime, it’s a good time for brands to begin thinking about how they will leverage this new functionality. Here are some tips to help get you started:

Plan Your New Profile and Cover Images: There is no better time than now to begin designing and developing your new cover photo and profile image to meet the new Twitter requirements. Twitter recommends dimensions for header photo of 1500px in width × 500px in height.
Offer Specials with Pinned Tweets: You now have the opportunity to feature a specific tweet a the top of your profile page to let new visitors get a better sense of who you are and what your profile is all about. One thing for brands to consider is featuring a tweet that offers an exclusive piece of content to visitors. For example, feature a tweet that offers a white paper, eBook or Infographic to help get visitors engaged.
Use the Mobile Features for Photo Sharing: Tagging multiple people and posting multiple photos is a great way for brands to better engage with their audience. Consider posting multiple photos that illustrate a story or message to your audience and tag individuals that you think would appreciate the message.
Larger Profile Image: The larger profile image on the new version of Twitter gives users more real estate to set the tone of their page. Consider changing profile photos on an ongoing basis to help keep users coming back.
Make your Photos Count: This new version of Twitter places a deep emphasis on photos and video. Publish photos that are bold and catch peoples attention. This will help to increase engagement when visitors choose to filter your tweets using the photo/video filter.

Finally, brands can expect to see more changes from Twitter in the not-so-distant future. Just last week, Vivian Schiller, Twitter’s head of new partnerships shook the “twitterverse” by suggesting that hashtags and @replies are “arcane” and could possible be a thing of the past. When asked to clarify the remarks, Twitter representatives had this to say: “By bringing the content of Twitter forward and pushing the scaffolding of the language of Twitter to the background, we can increase high-quality interactions and make it more likely that new or casual users will find this service as indispensable as our existing core users do. And we took initial steps in that direction with the introduction of media forward timelines and in-line social actions in October, and we’re already starting to see early signs that those initiatives are working well.”

What do you think about the new changes to twitter? Are you, or your brand, looking forward to them?

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Score With Social Media and the NFL

Attention all football fans: the NFL and social media are teaming up to offer you some of the best football merchandise and memorabilia on the planet.

From championship gear to player jerseys and every NFL-inspired relic in between, social media is the way to go when you’re in the football spirit.

In order to help you become the #1 football fanatic on the block, here are just a handful of socially savvy ways to shop for NFL merchandise:

  Following NFL Retailers for Deals

More and more NFL retailers are turning to sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote and advertise their football merchandise. From digital deals to coupon codes to promotional discounts, social media is a great way to find some of the best deals when shopping for NFL gear.

Social media is quickly becoming the best channel for retailers to distribute deals and coupons.

So, pick your favorite NFL retailer, follow their fan page and click “like” when you see their products, and they’ll show you some love in return by letting you know about every deal they have to offer.

Football Mania On-the-Go

As the world becomes a more mobile environment, shoppers are turning to their smartphones and tablets for all their shopping needs.

Because social media is mobile friendly, you can browse social sites for the best NFL gear from just about anywhere, including the football stadium on game day.

Whether you’re browsing social sites on your phone to find your favorite player’s jersey or you’re searching socially on your tablet to track down custom floor mats for the NFL fanatic man cave your putting together, social media and your mobile device make the process that much easier.

Retailers Prefer Social Media

Because social media is so easy to use and it helps retailers reach a massive audience with just a click of a button, more retailers simply prefer advertising and promoting their brands via social sites. NFL retailers are jumping on the social bandwagon too by tweeting deals and posting pictures of their football gear on sites like Pinterest.

Not only is advertising via social media a more effective approach to take for retailers, it’s a better route for shoppers as well.

Thanks to social media, shoppers are able to ask retailers questions about their products before they make a purchase. So, before you buy your NFL team’s hat, you can really make sure one size fits all by posting a question to the retailer via social media.

What Are Your Football Friends Buying?

Social media is all about staying connected with friends and family, which is also helpful when shopping for NFL merchandise. Before you commit to a purchase, you can post a question to your friends, family, and football buddies asking them whether or not they know of a better deal.

Likewise, when your friends purchase NFL merchandise that they’re satisfied with, they can share a link to the retailer’s online store.

In other words, if you let social influence guide your buying choices, then chances are you’ll have the best collection of NFL gear by the time the playoffs roll around.

From deals to mobile merchandise browsing, it’s easy to see that the social spirit and the NFL spirit are working together to help you find some really great gear.

Photo credit: espn.go.com

Thumbnail: http://tinyurl.com/o36scay

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Key success factors in viral videos marketing

After watching hundreds and hundreds of the most successful commercial video, I identified four major current trends that make brands successful viral video producer.

 

You can look at the video here:

 

First, global corporation extensively investing in TV advertising use social media to give to their TV ads a 2nd life. For example, Evian (Danone), the most performing commercial channel on YouTube with over 230 millions accumulated views, massively invest in distribution. They buy YouTube sponsored video placement. Because the ads are entertaining, viewers eventually share them. Their latest ad was shared more than 3.5 million times over 70 million views1. It represents a 5% shared ratio2. In comparison, an unsuccessful ad like the Axe Superbowl Ad3 received only 1% share ratio. On the opposite, Geico4 reached a record ratio of 21%.

Second, public happening or hoaxes are very successful. Pepsi5, Contrex6, Nokia7, LG8, Carlsberg9, TNT10, are surfing the same wave with tremendous success.

Third, linking your brand with music video clip. 93 out of the first 100 most viewed video on YouTube are music video clips. Therefore, brands find means to integrate those clips. Converse directly integrated Gorillaz video11 and their shoes play a visible role in the clip. Abercrombie and Fitch12 had a different approach and re-used Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe global success.

Fourth, companies sponsor videos of successful Youtuber. For example, Strides allowed Matt Harding to travel with no cost in return of being seen in the final video. Then Visa hired the same Matt Harding for its viral commercial. Creativity is all over the place on Youtube, brands identify talents with a community of followers large enough to set up the ground of a successful viral campaign.

 

These are current and solid trends. However, some of yesterday’s magic recipes are already obsolete: Even though it worked for the Budweiser Superbowl ad this year, cute kitten are not a guarantee of success anymore. Thus, kids (Volkswagen, Evian…) may not be successful tomorrow. First movers always have an advantage, especially when it comes to viral video marketing. Reactive and risk adverse company observe trends and then take action. This allows start-ups to compete on previously unreachable market.

Laurent Donnier

1 To measure the success of the commercials, we used a consistent set of statistic provided by Mashable Unruly Media Viral Video Chart (http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com).

 

“Views” are total views of the commercial from the official website and online duplicates when identified. The limitation of the statistic is that it does not distinguish natural and paid views.

 

“Shares” are total shares accumulated for the commercial on Facebook ,Twitter and blogs. The limitation of the statistic is that it does not provide information on the number of people who saw the ad before deciding to share it.

 

The “ratio” calculates the “shares” over the “views”. This ratio is an indicator that gives us an understanding about the natural spread of a commercial. The limitation of the ratio is that natural searches (ie. I type the ad name on Youtube engine to show it to  friend) is not reflected.

 

2 Evian baby&me / the new evian film

70,376,135 views

3,546,118 shares all time

5% ratio

 

3 Axe Peace | Make Love, Not War

104,649 shares all time

3,142,161 views

1%

 

The Axe Peace | “Make Love, Not War” 2014 Super Bowl ad tried to communicate different values. Bye bye sexy girls, sex and second degree, welcome peace and love. Axe symbolizes the advertisement trends of the 2014 Super Bowl. Probably a bit cliché and cheesy explain poor sharing ration. The controversial Axe ad parody “Clean your balls” with the good old values has ten times more shares and triple views. Something to chew on…

 

4 Geico – Hump Day Camel Commercial – Happier than a Camel on Wednesday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWBhP0EQ1lA

4,139,729 shares all time

19,716,577 views

21% ratio

 

5 Pepsi MAX & Jeff Gordon Present: “Test Drive”

2,719,757 shares all time

46,255,234 views

6%

The Jeff Gordon hoax is the most popular among hidden camera videos offered by Pepsi. Last year, the Uncle Drew series also reached the top of the charts.

 

6 Contrex – Ma Contrexpérience – 97s

19,860,177 views

1,889,222 shares all time

9.5%

The originally French brand (now owned by Nestle) became a specialist of “happenings” in Paris, organizing publicly recorded shows where the brand shines.

 

7 Nokia Lumia 800: ‪deadmau5‪ lights up London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2Gd-kqV5s

6,163,744 views

674,825 shares all time

11% ratio

This ad is the recording of Nokia’s light event in London (2011). Surfing on the trend of public event, Nokia created a nice viral buzz for the launch of the Lumia 800.

 

8 LG: Ultra Reality: What would you do in this situation?

15,342,408 views

687,983 shares all time

4.5%

LG’s hoax is an example of a well-conveyed brand message in an entertaining commercial. The attributes of the product are emphasized and perfectly integrated in the commercial.

 

9 Carlsberg – stunts with bikers in cinema

21,270,217 views

1,336,660 shares all time

6.3% ratio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS3iB47nQ6E

 

The Danish company loves to put his customers to the test and it became a trend in the beer industry. This first hoax was followed with the friendship test (poker) and then Heineken jumped on the trend with his karaoke test (a local karaoke room is suddenly broadcasted in a stadium).

 

10 TNT – A dramatic surprise on a quiet square

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=A+DRAMATIC+SURPRISE+ON+A+QUIET+SQUARE&sm=3

48,733,280 views

4,713,122 shares

 

“A dramatic surprise on a quiet square” (2012) encountered a tremendous success. This ad deserves a whole category just for it. Channels usually broadcast their own shows on YouTube. But TNT created a special event to promote its brand name. The 2nd most shared commercial video of all time.

 

21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf_Pm...

 

22 The Hottest @Abercrombie & Fitch Guys, “Call Me Maybe”

20,930,676 views

2,933,809 shares all time

14% https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5NRWM3FgqA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How Social Media is Changing The Way Real Estate Gets Marketed

When it comes to selling and renting real estate, social media has changed the entire game. Social media has enabled real estate agents, landlords, and even ordinary people to expand their personal networks and reach out to more customers and potential partners than ever before.

This has increased everyone’s potential reach for renting or selling a property. When used effectively, social media has become an invaluable tool that maximizes real estate activities. Here are some illustrations of why.

Facebook

There’s no denying the sheer numbers of people who use this social media site. The site that was once intended just for college students can now be accessed by children, adults, and even grandparents around the world.

This means that, if you’re thinking of trying to rent or sell a home, your potential reach through this forum goes far beyond most other markets that are available to you. All you have to do is post a listing on your page, and it has the potential to be shared by thousands of people … if not more.

Facebook also allows you to upload beautiful photos of the place you’re trying to rent or sell, as well as its immediate environs, in order to draw people in.

Twitter

Twitter is also a great option when it comes to operating on the real estate market. Hashtags and the search functions make this an especially useful social media site.

For example, agents can insert a string of hashtags such as, “#houseforsale #realestate” and then the city name, and everyone who’s looking for property in that region will find that listing. Furthermore, when people are looking for an individual property, they can find it more easily through the use of personal search queries.

Users who want to upload photos or videos may use a mini-URL to link to the page. This is especially useful in cities where the real estate is expensive due to the beauty of the places for sale. Once people actually see what they’re paying for, which can be done with Twitter, the price tag may be much more acceptable.

Pinterest

Pinterest may not be the best option when you’re looking for specific listings, but it’s great for searching for the perfect way to decorate a home. Whether you’re looking to stage a residence to impress potential buyers, or simply want to decorate with some new DIY ideas, you can do so with Pinterest.

The site allows you the option to follow your friends’ boards and see what they posted, as well as share your own creative ideas. While finding homes may not be as possible here, the potential utility of Pinterest should not go unnoticed by people in the real estate market.

There are a variety of uses for social media when it comes to the real estate industry. And as social media continues to grow, it’s likely that its reach and utility will also increase. That’s why it’s vital for you to get on it now and become familiar with how to use it to help you sell or rent a property.

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Russia’s Biggest Social Media Sites Becoming Monopolized?

Contrary to what many Americans may think, it’s not all about just Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest when it comes to social media (SM) platforms. In other parts of the world, there are some SM sites which top the charts but the majority of Americans have never heard of. In Russia, the go-to SM platform is VKontakte (VK), the biggest platform in the country, and it was just taken over by eccentric billionaire Alisher Usmanov. He monopolized the platform in mid-March 2014, which served to boost his ownership of the country’s major businesses, which led to a stronger Kremlin grip on the country’s media as a whole.

As an ally of Kremlin, Usmanov is one half of the two most powerful men in Russian media ownership. Even since President Vladimir Putin began his ascent to power in 2000, Usmanov has been the quieter, other power monger but has managed to stay relatively out of the public eye (at least outside of Russia). Imagine what would happen if an outsider owned the bulk of Facebook, which of course founder Mark Zuckerberg would never allow if his IPO is any indication of the iron grip he has on his company. Communication is power, and Usmanov just upped his (and Kremlin’s) by an incredible amount.

Who ‘likes’ this?

Usmanov is also the head of a major internet holding group, Mail.Ru, and it’s reported that the company upped its VKontakte stake to 52 percent. This was made possible via a 12 percent additional share by compliments of Ivan Tavrin, the Mefagon Chief Executive Office (CEO). Already, Mail.Ru owns the country’s second and third most popular SM sites, Odnoklassniki (OK) as well as Moi Mir (translated to My World). It’s also rumored that deals are being made so that Mail.Ru can own even more of VK which will effectively give Usmanov, Mail.Ru and possibly even Kremlin the equivalency of complete SM control in Russia.

As for Usmanov, he’s worth an estimated $18.6 billion when last reported by Forbes, and his interest in media monopolization is nothing new. He’s also the owner of the business daily in Russia Kommersant and has invested heavily in telecoms. However, he has been known to diversify, branching out into iron ore and steel production, too. According to a statement made by Mail.Ru, there won’t be any operational changes to VK and the financial statements will also remain the same. In other words, Russian SM users won’t be having the same kinds of complaints Facebook users are plagued by when it comes to feed changes.

To Russia with love

Some are surprised to learn that Russia has the biggest internet audience in all of Europe, but is also known for tightening the reigns when it comes to big brother-type monitoring, especially with content generated by users. Political activists lean heavily on SM to rally supporters, organize protests (particularly after the December 2011 election) and tackle Putin’s victory over the United Russia party. Of course, a heavy hand of SM usage can also impact businesses in the country.

Small business owners also depend heavily on SM platforms to help build brand reputation, attract new customers and even get ideas on which direction their email marketing, outreach and PR efforts should go. While Russia has acted swiftly when it comes to tackling black list sites, critics say a Kremlin-controlled SM takeover can lead to massive censorship. This spells trouble for citizens, businesses, and activists alike.

Proceed with caution  

There’s no telling yet just what this move will do for how users utilize VK, or whether this new control will make much of a difference. Russians are used to this kind of heavy-handed approach, and it’s unlikely that all political activism will stop on VK. What’s more concerning is what this may do for startups, entrepreneurs and others who use sites like VK to prosper. Activists may see this stakeholder as worth the risk, but others might not be so eager to put so much on the line.

In the world of social media, it’s easy to take for granted those inane posts, likes and comments; for some in the world, simply using it can be dangerous. You never know who’s really watching and what they may interpret from that last update you posted. What was meant to be a means to connect people and improve communication even across international borders has now become a hub and means of political and national control. By controlling the trifecta of SM platforms for an entire country, which happens to be the country with the most usage in an entire continent, one man has effectively got a whole nation under his thumb and it’s no secret that he’s working closely with a controversial crowd.

Thumbnail: http://tinyurl.com/knrzcbd

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Can Social Media Make You Happier?

Social media has become a daily staple in our lives. We take time out of our day to post pictures and statuses to inform our followers and friends what we are up to. We live through the experiences of what others post, which is typically the most exciting and interesting parts of their lives. This leads us to the question of whether social media makes you happier. The simplest answer may be, “it depends how you use it.”

FOMO

FOMO, or fear of missing out, plagues a huge number of social media users. What could be worse than deciding to stay in for a night, only to constantly reload Twitter and Facebook to see that your friends are having a great time without you? The fear of missing out on something more fun can be so intense for some that even when they have decided to disconnect from their social media they are still constantly checking their phones.

Ultimately, we are connected to fake personas that we promote to our friends and followers. I say fake because we only promote the best side of our lives on social networking sites. Doing this creates the urge to constantly check social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to see the latest updates in people’s lives. Ultimately, it creates the question as to whether we will ever settle for what we have, or cling to the fear that we may be missing out on something better all the time.

Gone are the days of collecting happy moments and storing them in a memory box or small cedar chest. Instead, these happy memories and mementos are uploaded onto sites like Instagram and Facebook to be shared and liked by virtual friends and followers. But instead of being a private celebration of happiness, this effectively turns social media into a “my-life-is-better-than-yours” competition.

Bad for Your Overall Well-Being

Studies are now showing that social media can be bad for your overall well-being. It’s scary to think that there is a direct link to time spent on Facebook and depression. It is also now confirmed that getting “likes” and comments causes your body to release dopamine, which is a chemical that makes you feel happy and good. I think it is safe to say that we all have felt a sense of accomplishment and happiness when someone likes your status on Facebook, or retweets or favorites you on Twitter.

The bad thing about these good feelings is that they make us itch and crave the next “like” or “favorite.” Procrastination then sets in as we wait, constantly waiting for a rewarding notification sound on our phone to feel good once again.  All of this can put added stress on our already stressful and hectic lives, as we sit in a vicious cycle that many think actually makes us feel lonelier.

Stop the Comparisons

It is just human nature to compare ourselves to others in order to learn from one another. Social media is almost like a game, where we are in a never-ending competition to one-up another friend or follower. We are all at war with another for likes and favorites and we compete by posting pictures of our expensive dinners, vacations, and social interactions.

When this becomes too much, too stressful, and makes us extremely anxiety-prone, it may be best to stop the comparisons. Limit the amount of time you spend on social media sites. Ultimately, there will always be someone on your Facebook and Twitter timeline who is more successful and more accomplished than you. Stop comparing yourself to them and pay less attention to them so you do not lose sight of your own goals and successes.

Social Happiness Experiments

Happier is a recent social media site that has one goal in mind, which one might guess is to make you feel happy. This social media site runs a blog full of posts promoting happiness and positivity. With Happier, users can become more energetic, less stressed, and get more out of their lives. What is cool about the site is that there are prompts for different moments that you may encounter during your day. Users are also capable of making their moments “just for them,” which makes the site as personal or public as the users want in a very simple manner.

Social media enthusiasts can also search for happiness by participating in public happiness projects. For instance, a project called #100HappyDays, challenges participants to submit a picture everyday of them being happy, for 100 days. Undoubtedly, this will result in a book deal for the creator, but it can still prove to be an interesting task to undertake – and who knows, maybe it will make you happier. On the site, they explain that this is not a happiness competition or a showing off contest. They explain that 71% of people who attempt the challenge fail because of lack of time. Then they dare the reader: “These people simply did not have time to be happy. Do you?”

Only time will tell if social media makes us happier. However, one thing is certain: social media is not going away anytime soon. So it’s a good idea to learn to live with it, and maybe even thrive with it.

Images: Swaminathan | Yamanaka Tanaki

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